Fast bowler Scott Boland has singled out Joe Root as the key England player Australia aims to silence in the Ashes. The series opener is fast approaching and is set to be played from November 21 at Perth’s Optus Stadium.

Australia have a history of targeting specific English players – legendary fast bowler Glenn McGrath made it a tradition to focus on England batters before matches, while captain Michael Clarke instructed his bowlers to neutralise Alastair Cook during their 5-0 series win in 2013-14.

As the first Test approaches, Root has drawn attention from local media because he has yet to score a Test century in the country.

“You always want to take down the best players. In the past, when Joe Root was captain, you wanted to try to make sure they had as little impact as you can. England have quite a few good batters we’ll be looking to do that to,” Boland was quoted as saying by BBC Sport.

Boland, who picked Root four times during England’s last Ashes tour of Australia, added, “Hopefully we can keep Joe Root and the guys in the middle-order pretty quiet.”

Boland was initially expected to serve as a reserve for Australia’s primary pace attack in this series. However, due to injuries to captain Pat Cummins and fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood, he will now be part of the Australia XI for the opening Test. Boland and Mitchell Starc are likely to be complemented by Brendan Doggett, a 31-year-old uncapped specialist seam bowler.

“Obviously, you don’t want to be missing two great players like Josh and Pat. Our bowling stocks have been really strong for quite a while – no one has been able to break in. It’s going to be an exciting time. A new guy or two will get a look in. They’re not inexperienced guys. Brendan is 31 years old, he’s played a lot of first-class cricket, and he knows his game. He knows what he’s going to need to do to express his skills out on the big stage,” he added.